SFMTA Rolls Out Battery Electric Bus Pilot Program

SFMTA Rolls Out Battery Electric Bus Pilot Program
By Stephen Chun

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced the first of three battery electric buses have entered revenue service achieving a major milestone in the agency’s greater goal of an all-electric fleet and a carbon-neutral San Francisco by 2040, as explained in the SFMTA’s Sustainability and Climate Action Program.

As part of the program, Muni had initially ordered nine battery-electric buses, three each from three manufacturers, New Flyer, BYD USA and Proterra, for an 18-month tryout. As the program evolved, a fourth manufacturer, Nova Bus, was added to the program who would bring in three additional e-buses for the extensive testing. Currently five e-buses have arrived. The rest of seven will be delivered by the end of 2022.  

Prior to the launch, the e-buses were tested on some of our most challenging routes. The new coaches will be serving the 9 San Bruno, 22 Fillmore, 29 Sunset and 44 O'Shaughnessy lines. The three battery-electric buses, one each from New Flyer, BYD USA, and Proterra, will be running on the same line each day to gather data on how they respond to the challenges of revenue service across our unique geographic terrain. 

Leading up to this launch, the SFMTA has been working with PG&E to complete and update the charging infrastructure, called ChargePoint Express Plus, needed to power our new battery electric fleet. Each bus takes about four hours to charge and the electrical support equipment is enclosed within the Electrical Equipment Center directly adjacent to the charging stations.  To date, we have nine of 12 charging stations completed, which are powered by Hetch Hetchy Power. The three remaining chargers are currently in fabrication and anticipated to be delivered in Spring 2022. Construction will continue once the three chargers arrive. The overall completion of the installation project is expected for summer 2022.     

As of 2019, 47 percent of San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by the transportation sector which is heavily reliant on carbon intensive fossil fuels. The SFMTA says its reliance on harmful fossil fuels is changing the earth’s climate and contributes to extreme weather events, increased forest fire risk and sea level rise.  

However, the SFMTA continues to be a leader in providing safe and sustainable transportation options. The SFMTA’s energy-efficient Muni fleet contributes less than two percent of the sector’s emissions and moves approximately 700,000 every day! Today, the SFMTA operates the greenest transit system of any major city in North America  

Program Background 

We are committed to ensuring that BEBs can deliver the same standard of reliability and service as our current hybrid-electric bus fleet. In recent years, the transit industry has witnessed significant progress in battery-electric technology. However, the question remains of whether BEBs can handle San Francisco’s heavy transit ridership and hilly routes. To answer this question, the SFMTA continues to evaluate the battery-electric bus program. 

The BEB program serves as an important step towards achieving the greater goals of an all-electric fleet outlined in the SFMTA’s Zero Emission Bus Rollout Plan and a carbon-neutral San Francisco by 20450. Additionally, this project contributes to the City’s Climate Action Strategy goals and supports the City’s voter-approved Transit-First Policy established in 1973. 

Environmental Commitment  

San Francisco is committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 20450. The SFMTA, which has operated a network of zero-emission vehicles for almost 85 years, is playing a key role in achieving this goal. Throughout our agency’s history, we have consistently and proactively pursued and implemented the latest in green transportation technologies. Today, the SFMTA accounts for less than two percent of the City’s transportation related GHG emissions and operates the greenest transit system of any major city in North America. For more information on our Battery Electric Bus program please visit our website. 

Published February 16, 2022 at 02:03AM
https://ift.tt/2ubYk4v

Comments

Bring back the 'old normal' says author Lionel Shriver The coronavirus pandemic has killed tens of thousands and forced people across the world to re-evaluate what they think is really important.

via Entertainment News - Latest Celebrity & Showbiz News | Sky News https://ift.tt/2YcZvHd

New top story from Time: President Trump’s Brother, Robert Trump, Dies at 71

https://ift.tt/3g1Evdc (NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, a businessman known for an even keel that seemed almost incompatible with the family name, died Saturday night after being hospitalized in New York, the president said in a statement. He was 71. The president visited his brother at a New York City hospital on Friday after White House officials said he had become seriously ill. Officials did not immediately release a cause of death. “It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Donald Trump said in a statement. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.” The youngest of the Trump siblings had remained close to the 74-year-old president and, as recently as June, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop ...

Six Generations of Pint-Sized Buses Serve Muni’s Toughest Routes

Six Generations of Pint-Sized Buses Serve Muni’s Toughest Routes By Jeremy Menzies For over 80 years, special fleets of shorter than usual buses have been reserved for some of the City’s toughest routes. Winding through tight bends and climbing up steep grades, these pint-sized coaches ensure access to transit in neighborhoods where standard-length buses cannot go. As the SFMTA phases in a brand-new batch of shorter buses, here’s a look at all six generations of Muni’s “mini” fleet. “Baby White” Buses: 1938-1975 The first generation of short-length buses was intended for regular use on all Muni bus routes. Made by the White Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio, this fleet came to SF in 1938. The buses were nicknamed “Baby Whites” after a group of longer White Co. buses arrived in 1947. In the mid 1950s, all but three of these buses were retired. The three saved continued to run on the 39 Coit Tower route until 1975—in service longer than any other bus before or after. This bus ...

New top story from Time: Jasper Johns: “Dying While on Assignment Doesn’t Seem Like a Bad Idea”

https://ift.tt/39PD2WS Jasper Johns, possibly America’s most famous living artist and still plying his trade at 91, launches two retrospectives on Sept. 29; one at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the other at the Philadelphia Museum of Art . The exhibitions, known collectively as Mind/Mirror, illuminate the through lines of Johns’ large body of work: his fascination with such everyday symbols as numbers, targets, maps and flags; his sometime habit of limiting his color palette to red, blue, yellow and orange; and his exploration of such techniques as collage, hatching and scale. One section of the Whitney is dedicated to his variations on the motif of a Savarin coffee can crammed with brushes, which is widely believed to be the artist’s way of representing himself. Johns, who famously destroyed all his prior work before painting his first flag, lives in Connecticut and rarely gives interviews. He answered questions from TIME via email. [time-brightco...

New top story from Time: How Liberal White America Turned Its Back on James Baldwin in the 1960s

https://ift.tt/2QBsNzv In discussions about race relations today, the works of James Baldwin continue to speak to the present, even decades after they were written. So it is worth remembering that, at the very height of his influence, Baldwin experienced the same frustration that some Black activists, particularly on campus, feel about white liberals today: their refusal to acknowledge their complicity in the regime of white supremacy. In Baldwin’s case, the liberal backlash was widespread, and effectively marginalized him for a time. The very first piece on the front page of the very first issue of The New York Review of Books , Feb. 1, 1963, was a review of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time by F. W. Dupee of the Columbia English department. Dupee (a former Communist Party organizer) took exception to Baldwin’s apocalyptic tone. “Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?” Baldwin had written. The answer, Dupee wrote, is that “[s]ince you have no other, yes; and t...

New top story from Time: Britney Spears Asks to Address Court in Conservatorship Case

https://ift.tt/3xvaX1z (LOS ANGELES) — Britney Spears has asked to address the court to talk about the conservatorship that has controlled her life and finances for 13 years, her attorney said Tuesday, and a judge scheduled a June date to hear from her. Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Samuel Ingham III, said in a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that she had asked to speak to the court soon, and agreed with Judge Brenda Penny on a June 23 date. He did not say what she would specifically like to say. It would be the first known time in more than two years that the 39-year-old pop star has spoken in court. The last time, on May 10, 2019, the courtroom was sealed. None of what she said became public. The judge may also close the June hearing to the media and public. But Spears, through Ingham, has been pushing for more transparency in the court proceedings and documents of the conservatorship. Spears did not take part in Tuesday’s hearing, and she very rarely attend...

Govt offices in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack to function with 75 pc strength of employees in December https://ift.tt/2HQxXmI

All subordinate offices and departments in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will function with 75 per cent strength of employees next month, the Odisha government said on Saturday. The directions cover entire staff including Group-A officers. The General Administration and Public Grievance Department on Saturday issued an official order in this regard and said that also said that all state government offices throughout the state will remain closed on Saturdays.

New top story from Time: ‘I Will Cry When I Deliver That Last Yogurt.’ Small Ranch Owners Are Selling Their Herds For Lack of Water

https://ift.tt/3l9IavO Gail Ansley delivered her final batch of homemade Picabo Desert Farms goat yogurt to Atkinson’s Market in Hailey, ID two weeks ago. As usual, each 16-oz unit of rich, creamy goat’s milk yogurt was packaged in a plain plastic container with a simple disclaimer stuck to the lid: “We know this label isn’t Chic, but the Yogurt inside is the best you’ll Eat!” it proudly proclaims . The ingredients: raw goat milk, culture, and sometimes gourmet vanilla bean paste sourced from nearby Boise, or fresh lemon curd, or peach jam. But this chapter is all over: she sold her last goat, a Nigerian dwarf named Kea, the weekend before. Kea was the final remaining animal in Ansley’s hundred-plus goat herd, which she grew and raised over the past six years on her small farm in Richfield, ID. “ And I will cry when I deliver that last yogurt tomorrow, ” Ansley says over the phone, audibly tearing up. “ When we started, my husband had a pickup truck and a camper, that’s wha...

BIG STORY: After ban on 59 Chinese Apps, 275 more apps including PubG, AliExpress on security agency radar https://ift.tt/39xDtUt

About 275 Chinese apps in India are on the government's radar for possible violations of national security and user privacy. A list of 275 apps have been drawn by the government which are being examined for national security violations and if found in breach, the apps are likely to be banned, Economic Times reports. The move comes after the government banned 59 Chinese apps last month including TikTok and WeChat. Government, report says was also looking closely at the apps which are not just Chinese but would also have investments from China. The move comes amid reports that even the United States was also mulling banning the Chinese Apps for sharing data with the state authorities in Beijing.

New top story from Time: The World’s First Malaria Vaccine—and What it Means for the Future of Pandemic Response

https://ift.tt/3uQFdD3 On Oct. 6, the World Health Organization recommended use of the first vaccine to fight malaria . The decision is momentous and highly anticipated for many reasons: among them is that this is the first vaccine to help reduce the risk of deadly severe malaria in young children in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease remains a leading killer. The vaccine offers hope that there can be a circle of learning from one pandemic to the next. Malaria, our oldest pandemic, may offer insights on how we can survive contemporary scourges like COVID-19. Malaria evolved at least 2.5 million years ago and first infected humans in rural parts of Africa. It then spread to all continents save Antarctica—notably, killing off armies ranging from those trying to conquer ancient Rome to those battling to control the Pacific in World War II. Malaria, according to historians, may have killed more people than any other pandemic. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Malaria changed ...

My precise view

Search This Blog